Richard Slee @ Tramway

Richard Slee's Work and Play exhibition at Tramway has some good moments, but isn't getting the laughs it's going for.

Review by Adam Benmakhlouf | 06 Apr 2016

In Work and Play at Tramway, established British ceramicist Richard Slee presents sculptures of utility objects. But instead of being as useful as usual, they’re made of ceramic, either entirely or in one important part. Hence the unicyle with the ceramic wheel on the far wall.

Then there’s a metal container full of ceramic headed hammers. There’s an over-repetition of what’s essentially a one-liner. It’s a busy show, making for a hodgepodge aesthetic, with his work (of an admittedly exquisite finish) spread across wooden boards on supports. Nothing is risked by its staidly slapdash merchandising; however, knowing this reference may or may not be the case, it comes across more as a tidy design fair.

There are moments when the work hints at something worth mentioning. The green ceramic bows (as in bow and arrow) on the wall that are joined by two taut cords set up a tension beyond the literal, which could go towards setting up a kind of slapstick comedy timing. Importantly, it’s the only part of the show that makes more than pat reference to its space.

Also interesting, there’s a ping pong table with balls that are in white, decorative and curved holders. They seem to illustrate motion, and make for an ornamental kind of sport-themed visual. It does well to set up a nicely yet awkwardly heavy, ornamental image of velocity and movement.

Then again, along with the bubble at the end of the toy gun and some of the less intelligible works mounted on long canes, it all goes phallic. In the ostensibly 'funny haha' context, it’s just another cheap joke, and any interesting take on a ceramic impotence is left hanging.

Richard Slee, Work and Play, Tramway, run ended